This book, prepared by Hartmut Walravens and Agnes Stache-Weiske, well-known
German experts in the history of European Oriental Studies, contains a large corpus of
letters of the eminent 19th c. scholar Frantz Anton (Anton Antonovich) Schiefner, a
member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, that present him as an prominent
Orientalist of his time who belonged to the narrow circle of professional Indologists
involved in one of the most famous projects ever realized by the St. Petersburg Academy
of Sciences, namely the great Sanskrit-German Dictionary compiled by O. von
Böhtlingk, R. Roth and A. Weber in 1853–1875.1 About ninety letters from Schiefner to
Weber comprise the major part of the edition. They are supplemented with 9 letters to
Roth and 5 letters to W.D. Whitney, the American Indologist who contributed to the
dictionary, too. Moreover, the book contains 22 letters to the German linguist A. Kuhn
who shared Schiefner’s interest in European and Asian folktales and myths. This broader
perspective of Schiefner’s academic interests is supported with republication of some of
his less known papers including his German translation of a Mongolian tale, two papers
on Finnish epic tales, etc. The letters included into the book are kept now in various
German libraries. The main details of Schiefner’s life and works are presented in the
general introduction while each of the four groups of letters are prefaced with data on
their addressees. Their and Schiefner’s portraits are also provided...